PHALACEOCOBAX. 271 



proceeds the egg becomes very dirty. I took the eggs on the 4th 

 October, but up to the 27th of that month I observed a great 

 number of birds still carrying sticks and weeds towards their 

 breeding-quarters. The eggs measure in length from 2-3 to 2*6, 

 and from 1-5 to 1-7 in breadth." 



Mr. Scrope Doig found a large nesting-place of this Cormorant 

 in the E. Narra, Sind. He writes : " The breeding-ground was 

 in the middle of a swamp called the Samara Dhund, and the nests 

 were placed on old withered tamarisk-trees standing in water about 

 8 to 10 feet deep. The nests were large platforms of sticks, about 

 2 feet in diameter one way, and about 2 feet 6 inches the other way, 

 that is, they were more oval than circular. The eggs were laid on 

 a thin bedding of rush and grass, and the greatest number I got in 

 one nest was seven. Some had only three, others four, five, and 

 six ; the latter seemed to be the normal number, though some nests 

 had only four young ones just hatched. It evidently was an old 

 breeding-ground, as 1 could count three or four old nests under the 

 present ones, so that the nests were sometimes three feet thick. 

 There were no other kind of Cormorants, or in fact any kind of 

 aquatic bird, to be seen in the swamp except a few Pelicans. I 

 was very much astonished to find so many as seven eggs in one 

 nest, but there was no mistake, as I collected them all myself. 

 The nests were only about 4 to 6 feet above water, so that I had 

 nothing to do but stand up in the boat and gather. The total 

 length of the breeding-ground was about one mile by about 80 

 yards wide." 



Captain Horace Terry, referring to Southern India, says : 

 " Some thirty or forty miles from Bellary there was a large tank 

 near the Madras railway, where we used to go frequently in the 

 cold weather to shoot Duck, and with usually the result of a very 

 fair mixed bag of Duck, Teal, Snipe, Purple Coot, Bittern, &c. 

 "We generally went a party of five or six, and took with us a couple 

 of home-made canoes, rather cranky affairs certainly, but still they 

 would float as a rule, and were of great service in keeping the 

 duck on the wing. Xear the centre of the tank there were some 

 rocks, and one day, the 17th January, one of the party told me, 

 the Cormorants, several of which were flying about over the tank, 

 were breeding there. I visited these rocks, two in number, the next 

 day, and found I could only climb on to one of them, and there was 

 only one nest with three eggs in it and another with young birds. 

 I could see some four or five nests on the other rock, but could 

 not get at them. I brought away one of the young birds, which I 

 kept alive for some little time, but it died suddenly, I think from 

 foul play ; the boy whose business it was to procure live frogs for 

 its maintenance not liking the job." 



The eggs are extremely elongated ovals ; in some cases slightly 

 pyriform, but as a rule conspicuously pointed towards the small end. 

 The outer layer of the shell, which may be of the thickness of a 

 sheet of paper, is soft and chalky, white when the geg is first laid, 

 but becoming stained, soiled, and embrowned as incubation pro- 



